E 463 
.L96 
no. 66 
Copy 1 



E 463 
.L96 
no. 66 
Copy 1 



)YAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

863 BROADWAY. 

J\^o, 60. 

COERCION COMPLETED, 

•OR 

TREASON TRIUMPHANT. 



REMARKS, 

BY O^OHN C. HAMILTON, 

SEPTEMBER, 18G4. 




NEW YOEK : 
Published by the Loyal Publication Society. 

1864. 






On tlie fifth of December, 1860, President Buchanan, acknowledging a 
correspondence which 1 sent to him between Madison and Ilaniilton— the 
subject, the right of a State to withdraw from the Union — wrote to me : 
*• I have read the Hamilton and Madison Correspondence to several friends 
botli in the Senate and the House, with, I think, a good effect upon some 
of them." 

In the letter thus acknowledged, 1 proposed to communicate to him the 
opinions of Washington and Hamilton— Jefferson and Madison— asserting 
the right of the Coercion of refractory States. This overture was declined. 
On the 1i\\ of December I informed the President of a communication 
from Charleston, which had come to my knowledge, seeking minute infor- 
mation as to the mihtary defences in that harbor; and on the following 
day, not apprized of the President's false views, and therefore ignorant of 
his motives for declining my overture, I sent to him the opinions pre- 
viously referred to. Subsequently, at the request of General Scott, I 
transmitted to him a copy of my last letter to the President. This noble 
patriot— anxious, as he observed, " for some practical scheme of compro- 
mise " which would meet the crisis, yet fully prepared, in the grievous 
emergency, to put forth the military arm of the nation — wrote to me on the 
22d of December ; " In a long interview, a week ago, with the President, 
I endeavored to bring him out on General Washington's and Mr. .Itffer- 
son's doctrines on the Coercion of States, but could not make him touch 
the subject or allude to your letter. Of course, I did not. He declined 
even to say that he would enforce (after secession) the revenue laws." 

The effort had been made and had failed, and the nation was permitted 
to drift into a civil convulsion. Subsequently I was informed that my 
father was quoted for opinions hostile to Coercion. I gave so [.reposterous 
a statement litlle heed until recently, when I met the pamphlet hereafter 
referred to. I felt it was a duty to the public not to be silent, and there- 
fore these remarks. 

New York, September 24th, 18G4. 

John C. Hamilton. 



COERCION COMPLETED 



TREASON TRIUMPHANT. 



1 am neitlier a partizaii nor a politician. I voted for Bu- 
chanan to exclude Fremont — then apprehensive of the crisis 
which has since occurred — and I did not vote at the last Presi- 
dential election, influenced by the same apprehension. 

Recognizing the Government of the United States as existing 
in the Constitution of the United States as a *' Representative 
Democracy," for all its officers are directly or indirectly *' the 
choice of the people," and the Constitution itself is " revocable and 
alterable by the people," I am a Democrat — and, as " the Con- 
stitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State Govern- 
ments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, 
by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and 
leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important 
portions of the sovereign power," is a " Federal Government," 
I am a Federalist. 

In both these aspects, I am compelled to be and am an 
Unionist — for in addition to the value of the union in all other 
respects, I kuow that a '' iirm union is of the utmost moment to 
the peace and liberty of the States, as a barrier against domestic 
faction and insurrection." Believing in the preservation of this 
" Firm Union," as containing the life of our nation, I regard 
the doctrine of secession as a doctrine of political suicide. So 
I utterly reject it. Assured that coekciox by the laws of the 
nation, and when the necessity has arisen — by the arms of the 
nation, is indispensalile to the preservation of its life, the 
motives which oblige me to reject the doctrine of secession, 
equally oblige me to assert and vindicate the right and the duty 
of coercion. 

The idea of secession — the power of secession, the right of 
secession— the duty of secession, are unknown in the history of 



the American people, until two year^efore the close of the last 
century ; even the word secession, used in a political sense, is 
believed until that time to have been unknown. To *' secede," 
means " to withdraw from a fellowship." In no one of the 
constitutions of the several States of this Union, was the right 
^' to withdraw" reserved. All of these constitutions look to the 
continuing existence of these several States in Union, — and the 
Articles of Confederation declaratory of their common oj)iuion 
and exigent purpose, are delined by themselves to be " Articles 
of Confederation and Perpetual Union." Not only do not the 
constitutions of any of the States reserve a right '' to withdraw" 
- — a right of secession, but in the restrictions imposed on them- 
selves as States, by themselves as States, when enteriug into this 
" confederation and perpetual Union," they erected barriers to 
such withdrawal, and to secure the perpetuating those common 
united interests, imposed common united duties, and established 
common united powers. It was not in the absence of a common 
sense of the value of a Union, that the Articles of Confederation 
were defective, it Avas in an absence of the means of rendering 
that Union a common blessing, by its mild operations through 
the medium of all pervading laws, thus provoking foreign 
aggressions and internal conflicts, without adequate powers to 
repel or subdue them. This was the disease of the confedera- 
tion ; and the present Constitution of the United States was 
offered to the people of the United States, and was accepted, as 
the remedy for this disease, by " the people of the United 
States." Setting forth in its preamble the great purposes in 
their view, they " ordained and established this constitution for 
the United States." Framed and proposed by the general con- 
vention of the people, of which Washington was the head — re- 
commended by the Congress of the several States — adopted by 
the people of the United States in conventions, called by the 
State Legislatures, this adoption was not the act of the several 
States, — nor of the people of the several States — agi'eeing with 
each other, but it was the act of the people of the several States 
aorreeins ^^ the Constitution — and thus ordainin<]^ and establish- 
ing it. The words " ordain and establish" here used so promi- 
nently, were w^ell understood by the framers of this constitution. 
They were w^ords derived from the scriptures — used in a scrip- 



tnral sense, used most solemnly in all tlieir significance, in tbeir 
application to the highest of human acts — the creation of a go- 
vernment — to express an act of Supreme power by the people 
of the United States — '' decreeing and settling firmly" — a com- 
plete and final act— a constitution of government for " them- 
selves an.d their posterity." The Constitution sought two pri- 
mary objects. For the insufficient and conflicting powers of 
war under the confederation, it substituted a plenary sovereign 
power of war, making the President of the United States, 
*^ Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Kavy of tlie United 
States," thus empowering him to fulfill the obligations of his 
inaugural oath, '' to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu- 
tion." To prevent a conflict with this plenary power by the 
State governments, the Constitution declares tliat " no State 
shall, without the consent of Congress, keep troops or ships of 
war in time of peace— enter into any agreement or compact 
wath another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war 
unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not 
admit of delay." 

The other primary object of the Constitution was to substitute 
within the domain of the United States, a government of law, 
instead of a government by arms. " The great and radical vice," 
it is stated in "The Federalist"— the great American commen- 
tary on the Constitution, " in the construction of the confedera- 
tion, is in the principle of legislation for States or governments, 
in their cokpokate or collective capacities, and as contradis- 
tinguised from the ixdividuals of whom they consist— a princi- 
ple in itself evidently incompatible with Govekxmext, a princi- 
ple, in short, which, if it is to be executed at all, must substitute 
the violent and sanguinarj^ agency of the sword to the mild 
influence of the magistracy." 

Nor is the evidence wanting that such was deemed the true 
theory of the Articles of Confederation. Madison and JeflTerson 
have been regarded as the especial guardians of American 
liberties as the founders of the school of strict constitutional 
constructions — as the friends, above all others, of State kiguts, 
and thus became the idols of Democracy. What were their 
opinions as to the right and the power of Coercing Stati s ? 

Madison, then a member of Congress sitting at Philadelphia, 



6 



thus writes to Jefferson, on tlie 16th a£ April, 1T81. — " Madi- 
son Papers, vol. 1, p. 86." 

'^ The necessity of arming Congress with coekciye poavers 
arises from the slianieful deficiency of some of the States, which 
are most capahle of yielding their apportioned supplies — and 
the military exactions to which others, already exhausted by 
the enemy and our own troops, are in consequence exposed. 
Without such powers, too, in the General Government, the 
whole Confederacy may he insulted, and the most salutary 
measures frustrated by the most inconsiderable State in the 
Union. As the Confederation now stands, and according to the 
nature of alliances much less intimate, there is an implied 
right of COERCION against the delinquent party." 

" As long as there is a regular army on foot, a small detach- 
ment from it, acting under civil authority, would at any time 
render a voluntary contribution of supplies due from a State, 
an eligible alternative. But there is a still more efficacious 
mode. The situation of most of the States is such, that two or 
three vessels oi force employed agaiiut their trade, will make it 
their interest to yield prompt obedience to all just requisitions 
on them." 

What is this but an express assertion of the right of coer- 
€io7b of a State or States to enforce the " contribution of sup- 
plies " to the common treasury, by detachments from the 
regular army, or of a squadron from the navy ? 

I^or is the assertion of this right of coercion less explicit 
by Jetierson : " It has been so often said," he publicly writes, 
*' as to be generally believed, that Congress have no power by the 
Confederation to enforce anything, for example — contributions 
of money. It was not necessary to give them power expressly, 
THEY HAVE rr by the law of nature. When two parties 
make a compact^ there 7'esults to each a poiver of compelling 
the other to execute it. Compulsion was never so easy, as in 
our case, wiiere a single frigate would soon levy on the com- 
merce of any State, the dehciency of its contmhutioiisP Here 
again is an assertiun of the right of coercion without any 
reserves wha'ever, and for the mere purpose of enforcing "con- 
tributions of supplies." This right of coercion, it must be 
remembered, was avowed by both these public men, anterior to 



the adoption of the existing Constitution — and by both as re- 
sulting from a compact between the States. E^or can this 
result, as fairly decliicible from the position of a government 
existing by compact^ be denied. Ancient and modern history 
agree in showing, that in tlie case of one of several confederates 
combined in a league, the sword, in the event of a delinquency, 
is the only arbiter, and civil war the necessary consequence. 
It was to prevent this resort and the inevitable consequence, 
that the present Constitution was established, creating a Na- 
tional Government, to be executed by laws passing " into im- 
mediate operation upon the citizens themselves." By this 
instrument it is provided, that, " this Constitution and the laws 
of the United States, which will be made in pursuance thereof, 
shall be the supreme law of the land ; and it is further provided 
that, " the people in every State shall be bound thereby, any- 
thing in the Constitution or law^s of the State to the contrary, not- 
withstanding." In further pursuit of tliis object, it declares that 
the representatives of the States and of the people in Congress, 
** the members of the several State Legislatures, and all execu- 
tive and judicial officers, shall be bound by oath or affirmation 
to surpoKT this Constitution." Thus it is, that any civil acts of 
any of the States in contravention of the Constitution were 
made inoperative. All, therefore, that it was possible to do, 
according to the structure of the Constitution of the United 
States, to secure its legal supremacy, was done — postponing to 
the great emergencies of " domestic violence,^'' the employment 
of the military arm of the nation. 

^\'hile these formal avowals of Madison and of Jefferson of the 
right of coercing States, have been carefully kept out of view 
by the partizans of the Rebel Confederates, the language of 
Hamilton, in the Convention of Xew York, held in 1788, has 
been quoted in denial of that right. His argument, truly stated 
and truly understood, recognizes the right as existing under the 
Confederation ; ohjec's to the Confederation, as making the 
resort to coercion a necessary means of compelling the success 
of its ordinary operations ; and points to the then proposed, 
now existing Constitution — as providing the peaceful remedy. 
The quotation employed most unwarrantably omits the preced- 
ing and following sentences, which fully explain its impoii : 



8 

" Sir," Hamilton remarkeil, " if wo Lave national objects to pur- 
sue, we must have national revenilP. if you make recjussi- 
tions and they are not complied with; what is to be done?" It 
has been well observed, that to coerce the States is one of the 
maddest projects that ever was devised. A failure of compli- 
ance will never be confined to a single State. This being the 
case, can we su})pose it wise to hazard a civil w^ar? Here is a 
nation at war with itself! A government that can exist only 
by the sword. Every such war must involve the innocent wdth 
the guilty. This single consideration should be sufficient to 
dispose ever}' peaceable citizen against such a government. '^ * 
What is the cure for this great evil ? Nothing, but to enable 
the national laws to operate on individuals, in the same manner 
as those of the States do." 

The abuse of Hamilton's language, the purpose of which is 
clearly shown by the context, i^ resorted to in order to de- 
nounce the administration for employing the military power of 
the Government in resistance to a military attempt to subvert 
it. For it nnist always be remembered, that this war was not 
begun by the United States, that it is not a war merely of coer- 
cion, that the right or duty of the initiatory coercion of States 
is not at all the cpiestion ; that, on the part of the Government, it 
is the exercise of a power necessarily incident to all government, 
the power of self-defence, arid the exercise of an express consti- 
tutional power — a war against a war begun — a war against 
'' TREASON," which the Constitution declares " consists in levy- 
ing WAK ao'ainst the United States." Was. ever treason marked 
by more overt acts; the attack on Fort Sumter ; the occupation 
of the other forts ; the seizure of tlie pul)lic property of the 
United States ; the compelling the troops of the United States 
to surrender on parole ; the firing on the militia of the United 
States called forth for the defence of tlie ca|)ital ; the project to 
ASSASSINATE tlic President on his journey to the seat of Govern- 
ment ; and the organized bodies of troops in Virginia to seizb 
HIS PERSON. All of these acts of treason are patent facts, with 
the exception of the two last ; and as to one of these, I cpiote 
the declaration of General Scott : " Those who deny the inten- 
tion to assassinate the President are little acquainted with the 
facts ;" and as to the last, the plot to seize his person/I refer to 



9 

tlie autliarity of General Wool. They live to eonfinn tliese 
statements. 

But to return to the chief topic of these remarks. I will now 
show hy their positive, explicit declarations, that AVashington 
and Hamilton both asserted the power nnder the present Con- 
stitution to COERCE one or more rebellious States, and approved 
the exertion of that power. 

Treason most often raises its head in the moments of a na- 
tion's danger — moments when patriotism quickens the roused 
current of its blood, and raises its mighty arm. Tlie doctrine 
of a subsisting cohipact between the States is seen to liave been 
the ground upon which Madison and Jefferson asserted a power 
in the confederation to coerce a State. The same doctrine of a 
subsisting coa[pagt, not applicable to the existing Constitution 
of the United States, is the basis used by the same persons,. 
Jelferson and Madison, to assert to a State or States a right to 
NULLIFY — that is, render inoperate, and to resist " laws of the 
United States," declared by the Constitution to be the ^^ sMpveine 
law of the land" — a term as broad as the limits of the iVnierican 
Republic — compreheuding all its States and all its territories, 
and even its adjacent ocean waters. France was waging a 
practical war against the United States, seizing the ships, and 
depredating on the commerce of the nation, as England has re- 
cently been depredating upon it through confederate corsairs. 
The leaders of the democratic party — then in the interest of 
France, as now in the interest of Great Britain, seeking to dis- 
solve the Union — were then engaged in exciting sedition, as 
they now are engaged in exciting sedition, employing then as 
now, as its p>rincipal instruments, aliens, and recently natural- 
ized aliens. The National Government found it necessary to 
pass laws to restrain sedition and to control these aliens — laws 
expressly approved and vindicated by Washington, when re- 
tired from Oiti(;e. To clamor against and to oppose these laws 
w^as the policy of Jetferson and of Madison, whom Washington, 
in the lirst draught of his ''Farewell address" denounced to the 
world. This hostility to the Government gave birth to the 
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions; the former from the hand 
of Jefferson, the latter from that of Madison. 

In the first of these Kentucky resolutions, Jefferson declivres. 



10 

that the States were united by a corrvpact niider the title of a 
Constitution — that " to tliis coni})aW^ each State acceded^ as a 
State^ and is an integral party, its co-States forming as to itself, 
the other party — and tliat, as in all otlier cases of compact 
among ])artics having no common Judge, each party has an 
equal right to judge for itself\ as well of infractions, as of the 
mode and meamive of redress." Then follows the declaration, 
that in the assumed cases — " Xulltficatiox of the act is the right- 
ful remedy." (See Jefferson's Works, lY., 344 — Letter of Jef- 
ferson, admitting himself to have been the author of these reso- 
lutions.) Madison followed ; and on the same ground of a com- 
pact to which the States were parties, asserted their right to 
interfere. 

On this very theory of a compact of States, as if it warranted 
one or more States to ntdlify a law of the United States — as 
^' one party " to that compact, it warranted the " co-States" as 
^' the other party," to enforce that law. The non-feasance or 
resistance of " the one party " justifies and compels coercion by 
'' the other party." According, therefore, to their own theory — 
the States Rights theory— as applied to the Constitution of the 
United States, Jefferson and Madison are the advocates of coer- 
cion. But such is not the true theory of the Constitution. 
This doctrine of a compact of States is diametrically in opjwsi- 
tion to the Constitution. It was the doctrine made use of to 
prevent its being adopted. Judge Wilson, one of the signei's of 
the Declaration of Independence, repelled it in the Constitution 
of Pennsylvania, in ITSS : '^ I cannot discover the least trace of 
a compact in that system. There can be no compact unless 
there are more parties than one : I know no bargains that could 
be made there," (in the General Convention.) I am unable to 
conceive who the parties could be. The State governments 
make a bargain v*dth one another ! F'ar other were the ideas of 
the Constitution, ixwdifar other are those conveyed in the system 
itself. This is not a government founded on compact. It is 
founded on the power of the people. They express in their 
name and in their authority — " AVe, the people, ordain and 
establish." From their ratification alone, it is to take its con- 
stitutional authority. These expressions declare in a practical 
manner, the principle of the Constitution. It is " ordained and 
established" by the people themselves." 



11 

T])i3 doctrine of a compacth the false and gratiiitons assump- 
tion upon wliicli this rebellion wholly relies to prove its right- 
fulness. This is the ground upon Avhich it is justified by its 
advocates among us, while waging open and barbarous war. 

People of America, I invite you, I conjure you to read the 
words of Washington, who never deceived you — as applied to 
these resolutions and to the audiors of them — and as noic a^jM- 
calle to the party opposing the administration. Washington 
thus writes to La Fayette, December 24, 1798 : " The sum 
amounts to this — that a party exists in the United States, formed 
by a combination of causes, which oppose the Government in 
all its measures, and are determined, as their conduct evinces, by 
clogging its wheels, indirectly to change the nature of it, and to 
suhvert the constitution." Of the alien members of their party, 
Washington wrote, declaring their express purpose to be., that, 
of '" poisoning the minds of our people, and sowing dissensions 
among them, in order to alienate their affections from the Gov- 
ernment of their choice, thereby endeavoring to dissolve the 
UxioN." " It is somewhat equivocal still," Washington wrote to 
Charles Carroll, " whether that party, who have teen the curse 
OF TUE coujsTKY, and the source of the expenses vre have to en- 
counter, may not be able to continue their delusion. What a 
pity it is, the expense could not be taxed on them." "That the 
object of this party, was " to facilitate the design of subvkkting 
TUEiK owx GovKRNMiiiSiT, I liavc uo morc doubt than that I am 
now in the act of writing this letter." And then looking the 
danger full in the face, Washington points to coi:rcion. It is in a 
letter addressed by Washington, a Yirginian, to Patrick Henry, 
formerly Governor of Virginia, the eloquent patriot — looking to 
coerce Virginia : " But at such a crisis as this, when everj^thing 
dear and valuable to us is assailed, when a party hangs upon 
the wheels of Government as a dead weight, ojyjyosing every 
rri'i-isure that is calculated for defence and self-j)reservation^ 
abetting the nefarious views of another nation upon our rights, 
preferring, as long as they dare contend openly against the spirit 
and resentment of the people — the interest of France — (now the 
interest of England) — to the welfare of their own country — 
measures systematically and pertinaciously pursued, which 
must eventually dissolve the Ukion or produc]': coiecion." 



12 

Read tliese words of Washington, people of tlie L^nited States, 
and ask j'ourselves whether, if AvrittW at the present time, they 
conld more aptly, more truly have depicted the party now in 
opposition to the Government. Read these Avords, and then see 
whether Wasliington would not have advised coekcion. Read 
these words and compare them with the sid)missive, disorgan- 
izing, sympatliizing platform of the recent Chicago Convention. 
Read them ; and then doubt, if you can, whether Washington 
would not have again accepted the command of your armies, 
leading them on to victory as Grant, and Sherman, and Sheridan 
are now doing. A few words more will close this paper. 

In a recent pamplilet entitled " A Great Statesman speaking to 
the People. Alexander Hamilton on Coercion and Civil War" — 
the passage previously iKirtially quoted from his speech in the 
N^ew York Convention, is strangely adduced in favor of 'iion- 
coercion, in other words, in favor of permitting States to I'ise 
in I'ebellious M'ar, thus " to overturn the Government.'- The 
purpose of that cpiotation has been shown, by quoting it in full, 
as an arguuient in favor of the existing Constitution. Was 
Alexander Hamilton, therefore, of the opinion that the Kational 
Government conld not justly, constitutionally, and if it could, 
ought not to suppress a rebellion ? A single historical fact is de- 
cisive—Hamilton, with AV^ashington's assent — when Secretary of 
the Treasury — proceeded with an army into the far interior of 
Pennsylvania, which supjyressed a rebellion ; the object of which, 
it is stated in an intercepted despatch of the then French Minister 
(Fauchet), was to initiate a " civil war" in the United States. 
Nor is this the only evidence of Hamilton's opinion. AVithin a 
little more than a month after the last quoted letter of Wash- 
ington, pointing to the coercion of Yirginia, on the second of 
Febrnary, 1791), Hamilton wTote to Sedgv.'ick. In this import- 
ant letter he urges a report by Congress, " exhibiting with great 
luminonsness and particularity, the reasons which support the 
constitutionality and expediency of the law," (to restrain sedition 
and control lawless aliens) — the tendency of the doctrines ad- 
vanced by Virginia and Kentucky, to de^tkoy the Cc^xsTrru- 
TioN OF THE IInited State-, and with calm dignity, united with 
pathos, the full evidence which they afford of a regular con- 



I 



13 

spiracy to oveetur^ the Government. A little pamphlet," lie 
adds, " containing this report, should find its way into every 
house in Virginia. This should be done, and nothing to court 
A shock 8'!0uld be adopted. In the meantime," he observes— 
looking to the eventual necessity of coercing Virginia — *' the mea- 
sures for raising the military force should proceed with activity— 
whenever the experiment shall be made to svhdue a refractory 
and fowerful State by militia, the event will shame the advo- 
cates of their sufficiency." Under his advice, the then slender 
means of Government were called into exertion. A small body 
of troops was stationed in Virginia ; and the contemplated re- 
bellion was abandoned. If a similar measure, urged at the begin- 
ning of the present crisis, had been adopted, and a small body 
of troops been detached to Richmond to protect the friends of 
the Union in the convention there, from being overawed by a 
mob, Virginia would have refused her concurrence, and this great 
rebellion might liave been averted for a time. 

The historical statements here given shew the direct, iiTecon- 
ciliable antagonism between tlie two great parties of thia 
country— the States right, as they call it, or Democratic party — 
asserting on the supposition that " a State is clearly the ultimate 
judge of infractions of the Constitution ;" that it has a right " to 
judge for itself of the mode and measure of redress," and, 
therefore, the party of Disunion — -and the IS'ational or Union 
party, which asserts the power of the I^Tational Government over 
every individual of the United States, without regard to the 
particular locality or State in wJiich he may reside, to compel 
obedience to this National Government, exercising the powers 
vested in it by the Constitution, to preserve that Union. 

To say of the friends of the Union that they never have been 
the advocates of a policy detrimental to the Union, were not 
more untrue than to charge the members of the Democratic 
party, without distinction^ with being the advocates of Disunion. 

Happily for the permanent welfare of the Nation there are 
checks in the Constitution, and in the education of the popular 
mind under it, that can be safely and certainly appealed to 
a2;ainst any temporary misconstructions of the powers of the 
Constitution. This can be done, and often done ; and yet the 
Constitution will live. Happily for the permanent welfare of 



14 

tlie Nation, among the Democratic party there are numerous 
and glorious exceptions of men, oiTOiany points having strong 
opinions as to a national policy, who deny utterly the theory of 
State secession, — who affirm boldly the doctrine of coercion, — 
who cling proudi}' to the unbroken integrity of the Union. But 
again, there are among their leaders those who declare that " the 
whole scheme of Coercion is hnpractiaahle^ — that it is contrary 
to the genius and spirit of the Constitution." Give such men 
sway, and the Constitution caxnot livp:. 

Now, how does the issue of this election stand before the 
people in reference to the respective candidates ? The position 
of McClellan is anomalous. What it actually is may be ascer- 
tained from two sources. Immediately previous to the assem- 
bling of the Chicago Convention, several of its delegates from 
difterent States sojourned on their w^ay at Saratoga Springs. 
At this time and place was present a correspondent of the 
British Ministerial paper, " The London Post^ The Convention 
w^as organized at Chicago at noon of the ticenty-ninth of Augiist^ 
1864, by Auguste Belmont, now Chairman of " the National 
Democratic Committee," — a few years previously, consul of 
Austria at New York. The day before the opening of the 
Chicago Convention — on the 28th of August — a letter of that 
date was written from Saratoga Springs by its correpondent to 
The London Post, wdience it is extracted in the New York 
Herald of September 25th, speaking of McClellan as the pro- 
bable nominee of the Convention. This language is used : "As 
for his principles, it is difficult to say what they are. Avowedly, 
McClellan is a Unionist. Openly^ he professes to be willing to 
giv^e the South every necessary guaranty, provided the Soutliern 
States consent to return into the Union. Privately^ he assures 
those friends who discourage the prosecution of the war that he 
desires peace, and that he will advocate an armistice and a con- 
vention of the States, should he receive the nomination at Chi- 
cago. He urges, as a reason for not ojoenly avowing tliese sen- 
timents, that the people are not yet ready to endorse them, and 
considers it impolitic to take any step too decidedly in ail van cc 
of the popular feeling. lie feels assured, however, that the 
triumph of the Democratic party must end in peace, for he says, 
that, if even it wished to carry on the war, there would be 7io 



15 

army of any magnitude left at the disposal of tlie Government 
by the -Jrth of March next. Wliat these opinions and professions 
are wortli it is hard to say. 

There are not a few who distrust McCIellan, and who fail to 
place confidence in the assurances of a man, who was one of the 
fir.-t in tlie commencement of this revolution to set the example 
of the violation of personal liberty ; as he did, by the arrest of 
the members of the Maryland Legislature ; who has made all the 
reputation he has as a war man by the prosecution of the war, 
and who is still drawing pay from the republican Government 
as an officer of the army now engaged in can*ying on a war, 
wliich he pretends to regard as ruinous to the country." 

Was ever any passage more significant than this of the plot 
to deceive the people, and of the eliaracter of the chief instru- 
ment of the plotters ? How could there be a more complete, 
entire solution of the practice of the Chicago Convention's 
resolutions and of McClellan's letter of acceptance 1 Every 
line — every word is replete with meaning. McClellan, with a 
double voice, for war and for peace. Openly for ^w^Y— pri- 
vately for an armistice and for a convention ; but fully assured 
of peace, not because of the success of our arms and of the re- 
duction of the rebels to terms — not because of the willingness of 
the rebels to make terms — he knew the contrary, — but because 
the Government of the United States woidd bo obliged to sur- 
render itself to the rebels, he being at tlie head of the Govern- 
ment to make that surrender — because "there will be no army 
of any magnitude left at the disposal of the Government on the 
4:th of March '' — the day of his hoped for inauguration ! 

One more fact, and it is a fact of great pertinence, also of his- 
torical analogy. It is the fact, that the clearest, fullest know- 
ledge possessed of the opinions and views of the candidate of the 
Chicago Convention for the Presidency, is derived from the ofii- 
cial Gazette of the British ministry — " The London Post^ 

Is there no complicity ? Questioned in this letter merely for 
his uncertainty, were England only assured of his being in favor 
of the dissolution of the Union, McClellan would be the favored, 
supported candidate of the British Government. And, know- 
ino-, as Great Britain must know, fearing as Great Britain must 
fear, the triumph of the Union over the rebellion, in all its tell- 



ing consequences, who can donbt tliat McClellan is the favorite 
candidate of Eiighxnd? '' Several offhe leaders of the Demo- 
cratic partj^," Lord Lyons, the British minister, writes to his 
Government, " sought interviews with me, both Ixfore and after 
the arrival of the intelligence of General McClellan^s dismivssal." 
" This intelligence dashed the rising hopes of the conservatives. 
The General, McClellan^ had been regarded as the i*epresenta^ 
tive of conservative principles in the arm3\ Svpport of him had. 
been made one of the articles of tlie conservative electoral j^ro- 
f/rammv. » , . The irritation of the conservatives at Kew York 
was certainly veiy great; it seemed, however, to be not unmixed 
with consternalion and dtsjpond^incy P 

Seeking ^^ foreign int^rvention^''^ they appeared to hold that it 
would be essential to the success of m\y proposal from, abroad^ 
that it sliould be deferred until the conirol of the E(cecutive 
Government should be in the hands of the conservative parPfj, 
I listened with attention to tlie accounts given me ef the plans 
and ho])€s of the conservative party. At the bottom, I thought 
I perceived a desire to put an end to the war, even at the risk of 
losinfj the Southern States altogether !" 

Ye interpellaters of '^ tbreign intervention," the record of your 
names is not lost. The time has not come yet, but tlie day is 
not far distant when all will be disclosed ; when your " conster- 
nation, and despondency''' because of the dismissal of McClellan 
from the command of the army, will l>e traced to a purpose 
more deeply interesting to the great body of the American 2:)eo- 
pie than they are awai-e of. 

The other source of information is from the lips of an astute, 
close observing, deeply interested member of the Chicago Con- 
vention—no less conspicuous a person than Fernando Wood. 

Fernando Wood has defined in public, in a recent speech on 
the 17th of September, the position of McClellan with singular 
clearness, accuracy, and precision. There are those who would 
regard his terms as terms of utter contempt. He then and there 
declared that, " if elected, I am satisfied, he (McClellan) v/ill 
entertain the views, and execute the principles of the great party 
he will represent, g^^^" without i'egard to those he may himself 
possess.'°^g He will then be our agent^ the creature of our 
voice." If, then, McClellan is to be looked to as the agent — 



lY 

the creature of tlie voice" of tlie Chicago Convention, of which 
Wood was a member — and who will doubt it — the enquiry 
arises, what is that voice ? J^or is the answer difficult. The 
declaration above quoted, that " the whole scheme of coercion is 
impractiGoble^^ that " it is contrary to the genius and spirit of 
the Constitution," is a declaration made by George H. Pendle- 
ton in a speech in the House of Eepresentatives on the 18th of 
January, 1861 (reported in The Congressional Globe — Appen- 
dix, p. 70,) after four States had seceded, and when three others 
were menacing secession. Why he thought coercion contrary 
to the genius of the Constitution, Mr. Pendleton does not leave 
to conjecture. In his studied speech, just referred to, he de- 
clares '' this Union is a Confederation of States ;" and on the 
first day of March of the present year, he declares more fully. " I 
hope that we may maintain the integrity of our system of gov- 
ernment—the system of confederation — the system whose foun- 
dation is State rights. The Constitution is a comjyact of govern 
ment made by sovereign States." 

Tims has this nominee of the Chicago Convention placed 
himself on the very heresy proclaimed in 1798 and 99, wdiich 
Washington and Hamilton denounced, as tending " to subvert 
THE GoveeKment, to DESTROY THE CONSTITUTION." The decla- 
ration of Pendleton, made openly in 1861, has been followed by 
a series of relevant votes. Mr. Pendleton voted against the 
bill for the collection of the revenue in the seceded States — 
agai'tst the bill to provide the Government with additional 
revenue — against approving and confirming the proclamations 
and orders of the President, and the movements of the army 
and navy for subduing the rebellion. These votes were in the 
year 1861. Again, in 1862, he voted against the internal 
revenue bill, against the Treasury note act, against the im- 
position of taxes on the insurrectionary districts, and against all 
bills raising revenue for supporting the war. Again, in 1863, 
his votes were of the same character ; and in the last session of 
Congress, in this present year, 1864, he voted against a test 
resolution of loyalty or disloyalty — that "it is the political, 
civil, moral, sacred duty of the people to meet the rebellion, 
fio-ht it, crush it, and forever destroy it," and all his votes on 
practical measures were in complete accordance with that nega- 



18 

tive vote ^ — in complete accordance with liis declaration that ' 
" armies, money, war cannot maintain this Union" — in com- 
plete accordance with his language, '' If onr differences are so 
great, that you cannot, or will not reconcile them, let the seced- 
ing States go in j^eace ; let them estaUish their government and 
Empiee, and work out their destiny according to the wisdom 
which God has given them ! !" 

Of such declarations and of such votes, the unanimous nomi- 
nation of Pendleton as Yice-President by the Chicago Conven- 
tion, is the most emphatic approval possible. It is also a most 
explicit interpretation of their resolution, that "justice, human- 
ity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate 
efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities^ with a view to an 
ultimate convention of all the States." Thus, in " a cessation 
of hostilities immediate^ and in a convention in vleio^ %dtimate^^ 
and in the gaj) a dissolution of the Union, we have "' the voice 
of the great party, McClellan, if elected, will represent" to be 
its " agent" " the creature." 

Pendleton has defined the position of this party. The Chicago 
Convention approves the definition, and nominates its candi- 
dates ; and McClellan, w^ith this resolution before him, accepts 
the nomination. 

Thus, before us stand in their proper guise the two cov joint 
candidates of the Chicago Convention. Pendleton — a gentle- 
man grievously in error, dangerously in error, but to be res- 
pected at least for his unhesitating consistency — voting against 
every measure to carry coercion into effect, and avowedly willing 
to assent to a dissolution of the Union. McClellan, foiling in the 
field the efforts of the Government by success of arms to sustain 
the Union : and w^hen too late dismissed from command, still 
living on the bounty of the nation as a soldier, though believing 
that no services of a soldier can be of any value, inasmuch as 
" on the 4th of Marcli next, there will be no army left of any 
magnitude at the disposal of the Government." I have called 
these men " conjoint candidates," and rightly so, for under the 
perversion of the Constitution by previous party nominations, a 
vote given for the electors of the one is given for the electors of 



N. r. Times, Sept. 23, '64. 



* 19 

loth ; and a vote for McClellan as an advocate of Union is a 
vote for Pendleton as an advocate of Disunion. 

And here an enquiry presents itself of no small unmeaning 
moment. Wliv has the Chicago Convention declared itself still 
in existence readv to be convened again ? To ascertain the 
opinions of its candidates 1 1 That was snpposed. Bnt we see 
that those opinions were all well known. Pendleton had avowed 
them openly — and there is evidence from another source than 
that quoted, that McClellan's were also previously known. For 
what, then, is the Convention still in being, if it is not lowering 
over the liberties of our country — if it is not, like '' The Conven- 
tion of France," of which we read — '' They have then- agents out 
all over, speaking in town houses, market places, highways and 
byways, agitating, urging to arm." "Was this still existing 
Chicago Convention meant to be a body, under certain contin- 
gencies to rsuEP the Government — perhaps in the person of 
McClellan, should he consent to be the usurper ? Have no 
whispers been heard — no significant hints been thrown out 
that such a purpose has been entertained ? Whence the threats 
that our streets would yet swim with Mood f "Why the drill- 
ings of excited men still kept up in oiu' villages at night ? "Why 
the organization of our Xational Guard, such as it is alleged to 
be? Wherefore the inflammatory menaces of Horatio Seymour? 
Why his urged re-nomination ? Projects such as these, may be 
abandoned under the mighty force of public opinion encouraged 
by the great successes of our armies. But in the onward march 
of society, such movements are to be noted and well remembered, 
whether as precedents or as warnings. 

When the husbandman on the far frontier is awakened in the 
dead of night by the voice of his faithful watch dog, or by the 
rushing in of his affrighted fold, he lights his lantern, and with 
peering eyes searches every corner of his disturbed homeyard, 
nor does he sleep ; but closing his house bolts, with trusty fire- 
lock in hand, watches till morning opens to his view, rejoiced 
that his timely movements had alarmed the stealthy visitor of 
his broken slumbers. People of the United States, our homes, 
our house — our National House — the Constitution, in early days 
called ''the neio Toof^"^ is disturbed, is threatened. We are its 
housekeepers. The bolts we cannot close as yet, for the foe not 



20 - 

only is witJiout but is loiiJiin its doors. But we can light the 
darkness. We cannot sleep in a fala^FBecuritj. All prepared, 
we can watch. We must watch. We must hold at bay the 
foe, until, at the next Presidental election, we shall have asserted 
by our votes the supremacy of the Constitution which Washing- 
ton signed — no '^ultimate Convention in vieio^^ to change it to 
its overturning— and that done, on that day, the sun will burn 
with a quickened ardor, and as the night comes on, the national 
skies will brighten and gleam with glory from every star in the 
vast approving firmament, and then with thankful prayers we 
can lie down to sleep. 

Meantime watching, let us look at the menaced dangers be- 
fore us. With the lights held up full in the face of the Chicago 
candidates, let us survey the consequences to follow their elec- 
tion with a concurring House of Eepresentatives. That ere a 
twelvemonth from this time, a severance of the Union, and the^ 
recognition of the Confederate States by England and by France' 
will ensue, I have not a particle of doubt. What next ? A 
Monarchy of these Confederate States, with Jefferson Davis 
the Emperor— under the protection of England, the establisli- 
ment of which is rendered easy by the actual existence of an 
overbearing aristocracy in the slaveholding class — Dukes, Mar- 
quises, Counts of the Empire — a Monarchy on our Southwestern 
frontier, at the head an Austrian Prince — now Emperor — under 
the protection of France — a Monarchy on the north, with a 
British Prince on his provincial throne, and civil discord raging, 
revelling among us here, " anarchy ere long shooting into a 
monarchy," probably, from its great necessities — absolute. 

What other consequences would follow if (a very improbable 
supposition) the Union be not severed. With McClellan con- 
templating a bankrupt treasury — with Pendleton at the head of 
the Senate — after such his votes, and with a concurring House of 
Eepresentatives refusing supplies to pay a debt chiefly incurred 
in the attempted suppression of the rebellion, the debt for that 
very reason would be kepudiated, — the cuekency of the whole 
country be rendered loortliless^ and while its capitalists are 
ruined, the laboring people would stand with empty hands curs- 
ing the causers of their sufferings, clamoring for food ; the brave 
Boldiersj meanwhile, of our glorious armies, disbanded- without 



21 

tlieir pay, moved by tlie common calamities, asserting their de- 
mands by violence, and wreaking tlieir vengeance on the false 
men wlio bad betrayed tliem with a false insulting assurance of 
" sympathy," while engaged in betraying the noble cause for 
which they had fought. Without supplies, not only would the 
army be disbanded, which McClellan looks to as the forerunner 
of peace, and Grant, and Sherman, and Sheridan, with their 
brother officers be turned off with disdain and insult, but our 
Navy, too, must be dismantled, and Farragut be taught that to 
ascend the main-top and stand there the mark of some felon 
traitor's aim, amid the boom and crash of rushing war, has not 
raised himself far, far above the level of all naval warriors of 
yore and present, but that he too has incurred the frowns of 
those who find a virtue only in successful treason and rebellion. 
Meanwhile our commerce all destroyed, our sea-coast teeming 
with pirates, our sea-jDorts in ashes, would propitiate the Rebel 
South chanting forth, " Britannia Rules the Waves." 

ITor are these consequences, all or any one of them, the fig- 
ments of a disordered imagination or the offspring of exaggerated 
statement. Look back at our history and read the evidence 
there ; see how its lines run in wondrous parallel with the future 
of a dismembered nation. 

As now, the first full knowledge of " plans and hopes " against 
the Government of the United States is gleaned from the offi- 
cial gazette of the British Ministry, The London Post of the 
28th of August, 1864, so the first full knowledge of " the plans 
and hopes " of the party in conspiracy against the Government, 
denounced by Washington, was found in a letter addressed to 
Mazzei, a Florentine, published in tlie Moniteiir^ the official 
gazette of the French Government, on the 28tli of January-, 
1797. 

Was the idea of a monarchy never entertained in the breast 
of a Southern statesman ? Edmund Pendleton, the ancestor of 
the proposed Yice-President, thus writes to Carter Braxton, on 
the 12th of May, 1776 : " Of all others, I own, I prefer the true 
English Constitution, which consists of a proper combination 
of the principles of Honor, Virtue and Fear." ^' Nor was Ham- 
ilton unaware of the tendencies of the Southern mind. Recapi- 

* Richmond Examiner, August 8, 1800. 



tulating the dangers of not adopting a vigorous constitution, lie 
portrayed to tlie General ConventlRi " Dismemberment, with 
the instance of Poland, — Foreign Influence, — Distractions set- 
ting afloat vicious humours, — Standing armies by dissensions, — 
Domestic factions ;" and sums the evils, pointing to a ^' Monarchy 
in the Southern States." ''•" 

Is the idea of a French goverment on our South- Western 
frontier new in the counsels of France ? For what purpose was 
the expedition gathered at Boulogne in 1803, if not to reconquer 
Louisiana in all its vast extent and to hold JSTew Orleans in the 
clutch of its first N'apoleon and of his successors ? As to the 
dangers of a vigorous government in Canada, the opinions of 
Washington, and Hamilton, and Winfield Scott, are pregnant. 
As to a repudiation of the debt, let the whole, long, vast difii- 
culty of providing for the debt of the Eevolution — Southern 
men urging its being sponged — be well considered. The history 
of that difficulty may easily be read. Nor is it silent as to the 
worthlessness of the currency and the impoverishment of the 
people, prompting stay laws and plunging headlong into insur- 
rection. And who is not familiar with the story of the army at 
Kewburg incited to " redress themselves " by one of the ablest 
after leaders of the Democratic party, and only restrained from 
excesses by their soldiers' afi'ection to, and confidence in Wash- 
ington. Can it not be imagined that Grant, and Sherman, and 
Sheridan, and their fellow oflicers, may be the objects of politi- 
cal persecution, when it is remembered, that by the very men 
who asserted that the Constitution was a compact^ and Secession 
a right, Anthony Wayne was sought to be deprived of his rank, 
or that Farragut could be treated with contumely, when we 
know that Truxton was insulted in the President's house by a 
President for having captured a French frigate. Wayne had 
fought, often fought — fought most successfully to establish the 
Union, and was a supporter of Washington while maintaining 
it ; and Truxton was a naval conqueror in its good behalf, while 
France was seeking to dissolve it with the aid of her American 
partizans. 

These are but a few of the consequences to follow the success 



* Hamilton's Works^ IL, 413. 



23 

of tlie approvers of McClellan and of Pendleton. People of 
America— you have read too little of the history of your country, 
or you would see that the hour of the election of these men 
would be the hour of signing the Death Waekant of the Union. 
And now cursorily consider the consequences of the success of 
the great Union Party. First— the restored and permanently 
established Unity of this great Kepublic, and in this restoration 
the o'reat prominent fact in the face of the whole world, that the 
United States compose a Eepublican ]N"ation equal to and above 
all possible exigencies. 2d. The vindication of the cause of 
Freedom in its largest sense, and the practical assertion, beyond 
all casuistry, of the great principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence—that " all men are born free and equal." 3d. A 
provision for the redemption of the whole public debt, by an 
adequate sinking fund, within less than half a century — with 
taxation so light as not to be felt, and yet with ample revenue 
— the price of every useful commodity brought within the com- 
pass of the most moderate means— while labor, v/itli new fields 
opened and opening, will increase largely all its proper gains, 
till all this great " Land with one supreme law" pervading— 
one Land of one United People — one ISTation under one E'ational 
Government — will more tl^an ever be a miracle among the 
nations of the world. 4th. Our glorious armies rewarded in 
every form of national gratitude with its growing power of re- 
ward, fields of glory with fields that never refuse a golden harvest. 
5th. England, glad to escape the punishments due to her great 
oifences by full reparation for the wrongs and losses inflicted 
with her ready connivance. 6th. The E'orthern British posses- 
sions, themselves seeking the boon, admitted into the Union — 
another make weight against the danger of Southern secession. 
Tth. The brave great men, who have led our armies to victory, 
sitting in the councils of a future Washington— vicing with each 
other by a well measured policy, in the glorious rivalry of heal- 
in «• the wounds of this great Civil War, and of binding together 
by stronger ties those who have been misled with those who 
have never faltered. 

These good results are not only possible. They will be ac- 
complished—and why accomplished ? I judge of others by my_ 
self. I must vote for President Lincoln, or I must be false to 



24 

all the convictions of my reason— false to all tlie earnest prompt- 
ings of my heart — false, nngratefjj^ to the memor}^ of the 
illustrious men who founded our l!^ational Government — false in 
gratitude to those who have perilled their lives in this gigantic 
struggle. I cannot v,ote for George B. McClellan, for " his 
record" proves in him no strength of character — no force of will 
— no steadiness of purpose. From his very nature he must be 
" the agent and creature of Ids party" — as is openly avowed. 
The imbecility of Buchanan surrendered this government to 
traitor counsels — v/ithout purpose as he maj^ be — reluctant as he 
may be — the imbecility of McClellan will surrender it to 
traitor hands — for traitor hands and traitor counsels behind the 
scenes h.ave moved the puppets who would raise him to high 
office. I must vote for President Lincoln— because wdiates'er 
may have been his errors — they have been the errors of a most 
kind, confiding nature; of a confidence often much abused— 
while his public principles and his public virtues, ever true to 
those principles, have been the stay and the shield of the 
American people in the midst of almost overwhelming dangers 
— ^l^rinciples which, in the exercise of the great powers conferred 
upon him by the Constitution, have met every contingency — 
have triumplied in every emergency. For such a man, so 
simple and direct— so free from vanity and ostentation— so 
courageous and so liearty — so faithful and untiring in his fidelity 
— so steady to the Union and alive to its perils — were his faults 
more and greater, his ^^irtues are so great and many — so far 
overbalance all that paid partizanship or party prejudice have 
urged against him — that, as the issue now is, it is a privilege of 
patriotism to vote. 

I will vote for President Lincoln for other reasons. Xot to 
vote for him would be a proof of national unsteadiness fatal to 
our form of government — a most dangerous jprecedent — while to 
vote for his competitor w^ould be to encourage, by his success, 
the example of elevation to office as the reward of stubborn in- 
capacity, courting a most mistaken, misplaced sympathy — of 
great, frequent, inexcusable military failures being the Jiigh 
road to political preferment — a most fatal precedent. If my 
sympathies were to govern my vote, they would be with the 
man, who, while President of the United States, has been 



25 

treated, and this more than once, with indignity by the officer, 
now his rival candidate, upon whom he had conferred the chief 
command of the army ! Of this the proofs are ready and instant. 
If my sympathies w^ere to govern my vote, they would be with 
the man, who has been made the subject of the scofts and of the 
gibes of the lowest creatures of the populace, while offering 
their noisy adulations to his feeble rival. If my sympathies were 
io govern my vote, they would be with the man whose fulfill- 
ment of duty has not only been opposed by all the energies of 
vigorous rebel war, but by the arts of specious demagogues, 
prating of and paltering with the Constitution and the laws, 
and recognizing as their '^friends^'^ a mass of rioters resisting the 
draft, recent from burning the hospitals of aged decrepitude and 
the dwellings of peaceful people, and on their return from this 
kind greeting — their hands yet reeking with the blood of mur- 
dered diizQW^— cheering for McClellan ! If my sympathies were 
to govern my vote, they would be for the man, whom southern 
traitors sought to assassinate on his appointed way to the Capi- 
tol of the nation, and whose person they were plotting to seize 
to prevent his entering uj)on the high office to which the Amer- 
ican people had chosen him. But sympathies out of the case, I 
must vote for Abraham Lincoln, because the question before ua 
all is this — Coercion Completed or Treason Triumphant, 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




012 196 753 4 



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